Congress men clash with police during protest in Kota

Congress leaders protesting against the recovery of urban development tax by the Kota Municipal Corporation (KMC) from the city residents clashed with the police on Thursday, leaving two people, including a TV journalist, injured and leading to the arrest of two others, police said

Congress leaders protesting against the recovery of urban development tax by the Kota Municipal Corporation (KMC) from the city residents clashed with the police on Thursday, leaving two people, including a TV journalist, injured and leading to the arrest of two others, police said.

The party leaders, led by PCC secretary Shivkant Nandwana and district president Govind Sharma, were staging a demonstration against the tax recovery outside the KMC office. Some of the protesters climbed the office’s entry gate due to which one side of the hinged gate broke off.

Later senior leaders started addressing the party workers in which they criticised the civic body as well as the BJP government in the state over the issue.

“In the previous Congress government, urban tax was not recovered from the people, but the new BJP-led KMC board is recovering it,” said Congress leader Rajendra Sankhala.

While the demonstration was underway, additional SP (Kota city) Shantanu Kumar suddenly reached the spot and tried to arrest Congress leaders Rajendra Sankhala and Ravindra Tyagi, which agitated the party workers.

Protesting the arrest of the two leaders, some workers started pelting stones on the police after which police resorted to lathicharge.

A television journalist, Gul Mohammad Multani, and a Congress worker received injuries allegedly in the police lathicharge.

Both were rushed to the Government Maharao Bhim Singh Hospital in Kota.

Multani told HT that a police constable had hit him on his head despite knowing that he was a journalist. Additional SP Shantanu Kumar, however, denied the allegation, and added that police had to use force as the Congress leaders’ demonstration was not peaceful and they had broken the entry gate of KMC.

Later, a delegation of media persons met inspector general of police, Vishal Bansal and submitted a memorandum demanding action against the policemen responsible for the attack on media persons. Acting swiftly, Bansal ordered sending of the suspect constable to the police lines.